Democrats, Buoyed by G.O.P. Health Defeat, See No Need to Offer ... - New York Times
And while his electoral success in states represented by Democrats in Congress had been thought to put such lawmakers in a vise between their party and their president, Mr. Trump demonstrated no ability to pick off centrist Democrats in his first significant legislative push. Democrats — red-state moderates and blue-state liberals alike — formed an unbroken front of opposition to the repeal-and-replace campaign.
“We’re not going to sacrifice our values for the sake of compromise,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader. “You think people from red states are going to be for tax reform with 98 percent of tax breaks going to the top 1 percent?”
For Democrats, the task of remaining unified was made easier when Republicans decided to go it alone and hastily draft a bill that turned out to be deeply unpopular. But the health care skirmish was also more broadly instructive for a party still finding its footing now that it has lost both the White House and Congress: Being the “party of no,” it turns out, can pay dividends.
“The unity we had internally, combined with the outside mobilization, really made this success possible,” said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the top House Democrat.
Both Mr. Schumer and Ms. Pelosi insist that they are open to working with Mr. Trump if he shifts to the middle and abandons Republican hard-liners. But while Democrats are loath to hold up Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a fierce and calculating opponent, as a role model, his strategy as the Republican leader in denying Mr. Obama bipartisan support is plainly more alluring now.
“You certainly saw the power of united Democratic resistance to the Trump agenda on Friday,” said Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut. “There’s no way you can explain the failure of that bill without the story of a united Democratic and progressive resistance.”
Of course, much of the story revolves around the inability of the fractured Republican majority to reach a consensus. But while many Republican lawmakers were under pressure to oppose the health bill, Democratic members of Congress also felt the heat thanks to the new wave of activism in response to Mr. Trump.
Though the ability of Democrats to do much more than say no remains limited, their success in helping to thwart Mr. Trump will not only embolden them to confront him again — it will also inspire activists to push them to do whatever it takes to block his path.
“Having tasted victory, the resistance forces will feel even more empowered to insist that Democrats continue withholding any cooperation and not granting Trump any victories when he is so wounded,” said Brian Fallon, a Democratic strategist.
Still, this rising energy could create internal turbulence for Democrats if activists turn their attention to the next major showdown in Washington: the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Neil M. Gorsuch. The court battle has not yet engendered the same intensity among activists as the health care bill or Mr. Trump’s executive orders on immigration. Some Democratic senators are uneasy about rejecting Judge Gorsuch, preferring to save any fight for an opportunity by Mr. Trump to fill a seat now held by a liberal justice.
But the party’s senators may now be pressed to take a more aggressive posture against Mr. Gorsuch, opposition that may not halt his confirmation but would force Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster for such nominations.
An infrastructure plan may be a safer harbor for Mr. Trump — a measure many in Washington are mystified that he did not try to pursue at the outset of his administration. But Mr. Schumer suggested that the president would find Democratic votes only if he defied his party and embraced a huge spending bill, rather than just offering tax incentives for companies to build roads, bridges and railways.
“If he’s only for tax breaks, it will just be a repeat of the health care debate,” Mr. Schumer said.
To many Democrats and some Republicans, the resistance on health care was reminiscent of the 2005 clash over Social Security. President George W. Bush sought to overhaul a program covering millions of Americans but suffered a crippling loss when Democrats put up uniform opposition and Republicans backed away in fear of enduring political consequences.
There is one major difference, though. “President Bush was at 58 percent,” noted Ms. Pelosi, adding that Mr. Trump starts “in a very different place.”
But while Mr. Trump’s weakness has Democrats hopeful of making electoral gains in the House, next year’s Senate map offers few opportunities and many hazards. In the House, Democrats need 24 seats to take back the chamber. That deficit could fall to 23 — coincidentally, the number of Republican-held seats in districts that Hillary Clinton carried — if Democrats win a special election in Georgia.
The vote to fill the suburban Atlanta seat vacated by the new health secretary, Tom Price, will take place on April 18, and the Republicans running are as splintered over how best to confront the Affordable Care Act as their counterparts are in Washington. With Democrats rallying around a well-funded candidate, Jon Ossoff, and the large field of Republicans splitting the vote, some Republican strategists are concerned that Mr. Ossoff may avoid a runoff by winning 50 percent of the vote.
House Democrats, hoping to continue their momentum, are planning to pour in more money as part of an effort to drive up Democratic turnout, according to an official with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
If the anger toward Mr. Trump is enough for them to gain a House seat in a fast-growing Southern suburb, it may be enough to deliver a wave across a broader area of the country next year in the midterm elections, which often yield gains to the more energized of the two parties.
“There’s a storm that’s going to hit Republicans in 2018,” said Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat. “The only question is if it is going to be Category 2 or Category 5.”
For now, though, Democrats stand to gain simply by standing back and abiding by the maxim of not getting in the way of an opponent who is damaging himself.
“Our best shot at stopping the Republicans has always been to let them cannibalize themselves, and this proved that,” Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic strategist, said of the health care fight.
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